What If My Job Involves Constant Exercise All Day? Meal Timing Questions

[Guest]

I am 16 days into my first whole30. It's going really well thus far, but I am struggling with the meal times due to my active career/lifestyle. I am a ski and bike patroller at a resort in Colorado.  I am either skiing or biking/doing strenuous physical labor for 8-10 hours per day. Of course I have down time, so I'm not outside the entire day, but in general I would say my day is very active. I have always been the type of person that eats something basically every two hours to keep me fueled without feeling too full and crampy while I'm working. Since I don't have a set workout time, it's hard for me to know when is appropriate to have a pre or post workout meal. Should I just try and eat 3 meals anyways, or have 2 snacks during mid morning or afternoon? Although I've stuck to only whole30 foods so far, I have definitely been snacking more than I should and my goal is to establish new meal habits for the future so I don't feel like I need to constantly snack all day. Any advice with this would be greatly appreciated!  

[ladyshanny]

You're in a unique situation that the general 3-meals recommendation wouldn't account for. If I were you I would just consider my work-day very active and not a "workout" perse. Then I would probably try to eat 4 template sized meals each day. Try to create them so that they get you around 4-5 hours in between before needing to eat again. If you are finding that it is just way too much volume, really bump up the fat content as that is what is going to keep you satisfied without adding insane volume.

If you do need to eat between meals, stick with a protein & fat combo as that will do you the most good.

[T2Andrew]

On 8/16/2017 at 10:44 AM, ladyshanny said:

... really bump up the fat content as that is what is going to keep you satisfied without adding insane volume.

If you do need to eat between meals, stick with a protein & fat combo as that will do you the most good.

Thank you ladyshanny.  This is what I came to realize after my day 4 bloodsugar crash.  My job as a mechanic is all day activity and as a type 2 diabetic, my pre W30 relief strategies weren't going to cut it.  ISWF helped me see the importance of good fats in daily eating for an energy source as opposed to carbsugar.  No more running to the store for crash food!

[chichi]

On 8/15/2017 at 9:11 PM, Dragonslayer said:

I have always been the type of person that eats something basically every two hours to keep me fueled without feeling too full and crampy while I'm working. Since I don't have a set workout time, it's hard for me to know when is appropriate to have a pre or post workout meal.

 

I know what you mean about being too full to work, and wanting snacks all day because you need snacks all day. I farm vegetables and small livestock, small scale, lots of physical labor. My first W30, I tried really hard to stick to 3 meals a day, but felt incapacitated after eating if I ate enough during the day, and ravenous at night during my wind-down time if I didn't. I had to let go of the ideal of 3 meals a day, and during my busy season I'm at more like 5 small ones. I haven't tried to do a strict W30 during the summer BUT the important part for me during my W30's (and more importantly, AFTER, for the rest of life) was to make intentional decisions about meals, and not using a snack as a break. I learned that for me, the key for an unpredictable but constantly physical job was to grant myself breaks that aren't food-based, like just going inside to wash my face, or having a 2-minute timer set on my phone for a breathing meditation (any slow-down moment of personal time that is not social media; that is a time warp). And having 'meals' instead of snacks helped me transition from something like 1/2 a pb&j to something like jerky, carrots, and olives, which lasts me a lot longer and leaves me feeling a lot better.

[Guest]

That’s a good idea about the 2 minute meditation break. I want to try that. I’ve found since this post that 4 meals works pretty well for me, but some days I get so much exercise and am out in the cold for so long that it seems I’m starving no matter what. I’m trying to stick to practicing 4 still, but there are definitely days when I snack outside of those meals too. Still a learning process!